2008 Poll - Executive Summary

Executive Summary

In January and February, the Statistical Consulting Service (SCS) in the Department of Statistics conducted the web-based Technology Poll, which contained a series of questions commissioned by the Office of the Chief Information Officer at The Ohio State University. This annual omnibus survey provides data that is used by many departments for strategic planning in developing and assessing programs and services.

How the Survey Was Conducted This survey of OSU faculty, staff, graduate students, and undergraduate students on the Columbus campus is based on web questionnaires completed during winter quarter 2008. SCS staff collected completed questionnaires from 514 faculty, 660 staff, 579 graduate students, and 429 undergraduate students. They randomly selected faculty and staff from a Human Resources database, but excluded clinical house faculty, for a total sample of 2,000 faculty and 2,000 staff. The Office of the Registrar randomly selected 2,500 graduate students and 2,500 undergraduate students from the Columbus campus. The sample sizes for all populations were chosen in 2008 to match the sample sizes selected in 2007.

The SCS sent a notification letter by campus mail to faculty and staff for whom Columbus campus addresses were available. Each individualized letter informed the recipients of the survey, advised them that a subsequent e-mail would direct them to the survey web site, and specified the e-mail address and subject line of the message. Notification letters were not sent to students, but e-mail invitations were sent to each sampled individual at his/her published OSU e-mail address explaining the survey and including a uniquely coded URL link to the web survey. This code made it possible to track responses and reduced the chance of unsampled individuals completing a questionnaire. To boost participation, undergraduate and graduate student respondents were entered in a drawing for three Apple iPod shuffles. To increase the response rate across all groups (faculty, staff, graduate students, undergraduate students), a series of two reminder e-mails were sent to those who had not yet completed the questionnaire. Explanation of the questionnaire timeline is produced in the table below.

Response Rate and Margin of Error Calculations The response rates and margins of sampling error for 2006, 2007, and 2008 appear in the table below and show the variance in either direction, versus the results obtained by interviewing all individuals in the population.

Table 1. Margins of error for the 2006, 2007, and 2008 surveys.

Grouping

2006

2007

2008

Response Rate

Margin of Sampling Error

Response Rate

Margin of Sampling Error

Response Rate*

Margin of Sampling Error

Faculty

415/2000 = 20.8%

4.8

464/2000 = 23.8%

4.5

514/1980= 26.0%

4.3

Staff

406/2000 = 20.3%

4.8

643/2000 = 32.2%

3.9

660/1996= 33.1%

3.8

Graduate

1024/4200 = 24.4%

3.0

258/2000 = 12.9%

6.1

579/2498 = 23.2%

4.1

Undergraduate

838/5000 = 16.8%

3.4

452/2500 = 18.2%

4.6

429/2499= 17.2%

4.7

Note: For 2008 calculations, respondents who opted-out of the survey were removed from the denominator.

In addition to sampling error, the survey is subject to other potential sources of imprecision and bias. These sources may include question wording, question ordering, and low response rate. The low response rate can be attributed to biasing factors such as over-surveying by previous surveys and refusal of some individuals to complete the survey due to its excessive length. Non-participation in surveys is a growing problem. The notification letter was sent to faculty and staff to increase participation and alert them to the e-mail survey invitation. The Apple iPod shuffle giveaway was intended to increase participation among the graduate and undergraduate students. The addition of the incentive to the graduate student population seemed to help increase the response rate from 12.9% in 2007 to 23.2% in 2008.

The mode itself may pose a major obstacle to higher participation rates for web surveys. Many individuals have more than one e-mail address and may prefer an address not in the Human Resources database. Individuals may not forward less preferred e-mail addresses and may check them only occasionally or not at all. Software filters may identify e-mail survey invitations as spam, and individuals may be reluctant to open e-mails from sources unknown to them.

Data Analysis After downloading the data and performing basic exploratory analyses, the SCS staff produced frequency tables for each question in each of the respondent groupsand stored them in files by the group. The SCS calculated percentages on the frequency tables in one of two ways. First, for questions where individuals could select only one response from a set of options, the percentage was calculated using percent of total number of individuals responding to the questionnaire in the group. Second, for those questions where individuals could select more than one response, the percentage was calculated by dividing the number of selections of a given response by the total number of individuals who viewed that question. They prepared crosstab calculations comparing questions across all groups.

Survey RationaleThe CIO Technology Poll data are used as metrics to help benchmark progress on the implementation of the university's technology strategic plan and to capture performance indicators for the budget guidance process. The findings derived from the survey continue to indicate a general satisfaction with IT services and resources offered by the Offices of CIO; however, campus awareness of CIO communications and initiatives remains an issue.

Computers, Internet Access, Security and Instructional Technologies

Computer Ownership and Internet Access Trends reveal almost universal access to multiple personal computing devices in the residence among faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students. Sixty-eight percent of the faculty have access to a second home computer (down from 76% from the previous year), as do 47% of the staff, 45% of the graduate/professional students (a decrease of 11% from 2007) and 27% of the undergraduate students (down 3%). Respondents in all groups showed an overwhelming preference for Windows PC platforms, greatest this year among graduate/professional students (89%), followed by staff (88%), undergraduate students (85%), and then faculty (78%). Connectivity to the university network from home has remained almost ubiquitous (92%) for the OSU community and almost unchanged for the past three years . Access to the network is via several different Internet Service Providers (ISPs); the data show few users of dialup service compared to high-speed, broadband providers.

Computer Lab Use Although the 2002 PlanIT Customer Satisfaction Survey noted students want more lab seats and longer hours, 72% of the graduate/professional students and 66% of the undergraduates report using the on-campus computer labs fewer than five hours week. An additional 18% of the graduate/professional students and 17% of the undergraduates reported computer lab use of five to 10 hours per week. In general, use of university computer labs above 10 hours per week remained declined for both populations in 2008, with few students in either population using the computer labs more than 20 hours per week.

Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) PDAs are used most among faculty and graduate/professional students (31%, down from 33% among faculty, but up from 17% for the graduate/professional students in 2007) than the other two populations, who indicated somewhat less use ranging from 24% for staff to 14% for undergraduates. The overall use of this type mobile technology within the university community remained around 25% during the past three years. Among three of the four campus populations indicating use of a PDA, 23% of the graduate/professional students and 18% of the faculty, followed by 10% of the staff indicated us of a Palm device (Palm, Visor, Treo, Sony Clio, etc.). Only 2% of the undergraduates indicated use of a PDA. The Blackberry, iPhone or Smartphone was used by few among the four campus populations.

Network and Computer Security Ohio State implemented the Minimum Computer Security Standard (MCSS) in 2007 to help protect the university's central and distributed telecommunications and computing environment from accidental or intentional damage and from alteration or theft of data while preserving university community members' appropriate access and use. Seventy-one percent of the faculty and 68% of the staff indicated awareness of the OSU Minimum Computer Security Standard compared to fewer of the undergraduates (33%) and graduate/professional students (24%). The poll results show that across all four groups, computer firewalls are activated and kept up-to-date (undergraduates 81%, faculty 80%, graduate/professional students 78% and undergraduates 73%). In addition, the majority of the four populations keeps operating systems current with security patches (87% of faculty, graduate/professional and undergraduate students and 83% among staff). More than 80% of the respondents showed compliance on running software to protect their computer against viruses, spam, spyware, and adware"”two-thirds of faculty, staff, and undergraduates compared to only 49% of graduate/professional students. Of concern, 14% of faculty and 18% of staff computers still contain sensitive data such as names and social security numbers compared to 33% of graduate/professional students and 25% of undergraduates who may have used earlier student Degree Audit Report prior to its recent changes.

Instructional Technologies The responses on faculty use of instructional technologies were similar to the previous year, with approximately half of the respondents acknowledging the use of this technology in nearly every class. In 2008, as in the previous year, few faculty indicate never using instructional technologies during the previous autumn quarter (6%, down from 12% in 2006). Eighty-seven percent of faculty said that the most important consideration in implementing technology was an ease of use without the need for technical support. Access to software, equipment, and Internet-ready classrooms was rated almost as important for implementing instructional technology and the second most cited incentive (82%, a slight increase from 77% the previous year). Help and support available to use instructional technology remained a lesser concern (57%, basically unchanged from the previous year), while only 38% of the faculty (40% reported in 2007) continued to focus on maintaining intellectual property when developing instructional technologies. Rewards for using instructional technology continued to remain least important (24%, basically unchanged from 28% in 2007).

Among graduate/professional students, 60% indicated their courses incorporated instructional technologies in nearly every classroom (up significantly from the 48% reported in 2007) and a somewhat higher response than what undergraduates report (43%, down slightly from 45 last year). Compared to the 2007 polling, undergraduates expressed about the same interest in fully online classes (35%, up slightly from 33% in 2007 but unchanged from the 2006 poll responses), but graduate/professional students' interest declined to 26% from 28% reported in 2007. The interest in the use information technology in courses remains an important consideration for both student populations, and fewer students in 2008 indicate interest in taking courses that depend primarily on face-to-face delivery. Among the undergraduate population, 44% (down significantly from 68% in 2007) and 34% of the graduate/professional students (demonstratively down from 74%) preferred face-to face courses in 2008. This marker should further the support the use of technology as a mediator for the delivery of course content.

General Satisfaction with CIO Services

Eleven percent of the faculty report being very satisfied with Office of the CIO's instructional support services, basically unchanged from the past two years polling. Nearly half of the faculty (45%) reported being very satisfied to somewhat satisfied with the support services provided through the TELR Office (Technology Enhanced Learning and Research), the university's resource for eLearning information and expert advice. Only 9% of the faculty reported being unsatisfied with the services (unchanged from the 10% in 2006) and 39% reported not using the services.

Approximately half of all the university community respondents expressed satisfaction with the communications produced by the Office of the CIO (e.g. IT Resources, orientation handouts, and CIO, TELR, and OIT web sites)to keep informed about technology-related events and services on campus (staff 67%, faculty 56%, undergraduates 51% followed by 46% of the undergraduate students). The majority of the respondents felt that instructional technology resources at OSU met their technology needs (80% of the graduate/professional students versus 71% the previous year, 78% of the undergraduates versus 81% in 2007 and 66% of the faculty and staff versus the response of 69% and 62% respectively from the two groups in 2007.

Information Technology Support Resources and Services A majority (75%) of the university community surveyed in 2008 indicated approval of the IT services on campus. Eighty-one percent of the staff are either very satisfied to somewhatsatisfiedfollowed by 75% of the undergraduates and 74% of the faculty and 69% of the graduate/professional students. More than two-thirds of the total population survey are either very satisfied to somewhatsatisfied with the assistance and service received from 8-HELP call in and web user support. Seventy-one percent of the staff and 69% percent of the faculty showed a lesser degree of satisfaction than the two student populations (undergraduates 44% and graduate/professional students 41%). Similar responses are seen among the four populations on the helpfulness and responsiveness of other Information Technology support resources at OSU. Seventy-five percent of the staff and 66% of faculty are very satisfied to somewhatsatisfied with these services compared to only half of the student groups (undergraduates 50% and graduate/professional students 47%).

With regard to the assistance and service received from 8-HELP call-in and web user support, more than half of the university community report being somewhat satisfied to very satisfied with the services. Seventy-one percent of the staff report being very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with 8-HELP call-in and web user support, followed by the faculty (69%), undergraduates (44%) and the graduate/professional student population (40%). The findings tracked similarly for the four population's responses to general overall level of satisfaction on the helpfulness and responsiveness of other Information Technology support resources. Seventy-four percent of the staff report being very satisfied or somewhat satisfied, followed 66% of the faculty and 64% of the graduate/professional students and 48% of the undergraduates. Yet, each of the surveyed groups believes that campus' Information Technology resources generally meet their technology needs.

Security and privacy remain two areas of marked interest in the 2008 campus poll. Overall, security of their electronic data continues to remain a serious concern among faculty. More than two-thirds of the faculty were either very concerned (28%) or somewhat concerned (40%) regarding data security, and almost identical response rate found in the 2007 poll data. Additionally, almost three-fourths of the faculty expressed various levels of concern about the privacy of their communications, with 40% being very concerned, again tracking almost identically to the 2007 poll responses.

Type, Number, and Connections for Personal Computing Devices

Home Computers As noted in the past several years, home computing has become ubiquitous. Almost all faculty, graduate/professional, undergraduates, and staff have access to personal computers in the home (98%, 99%, 99%, and 94% respectively in 2008, no change from 2007).

Some differences in type and number of computers continue to be found between faculty and students. Among the respondents reporting local residence or home computer use, there is an increase of laptop use as the primary computer across the student populations: about three-fours of the graduate/professional (77%) and undergraduate students (73%), up from 62% for both student populations. The platform for the primary home computer (desktop or laptop) overwhelmingly remains Windows PC (89% of the graduate/professionals, 88% staff, 85% undergraduates, and 78% among faculty). Macintosh computers are used by only 22% of the faculty, up slightly from 20% reported in 2007) as their primary platform. In the other groups, Macintosh platforms accounted for a significantly smaller percentage of the home computer environment among graduate/professional students (14%) and undergraduates (12%, slightly up from 10% in 2007) and staff (10%).

Secondary Computers Having a secondary computer at home is commonplace among many members of university community. Three-fourths of the faculty (76%) and over half of graduate/professionals (56%) compared to 45% of the staff and 30% of undergraduates report having access to two or more computers at home in 2008.

Secondary computers were laptops for 66% of faculty (up 7% from the previous year), 59% of the graduate/professionals students (an increase of 7% from 2007), 50% of undergraduates (up 6%), and 46% of staff (slightly increasing 2% from the previous year). The use of wireless connections for primary and secondary computers continued to increase across the university community: graduate/professional students (primary: 91% v. 77% and secondary: 82% v. 63% in 2007), undergraduates (88% v. 75% in 2007), faculty (primary: 73% v. 68% and secondary: 78% v. 70% in 2007). While the increase of computers with wireless connections was found among all members of the university community, the swing was not as great among staff (primary: 60% v. 54% and secondary to 67% v. 61% for the previous year). As with the primary computers, the platform for secondary computers remains overwhelmingly Windows, with Macintosh being used in numbers similar to its use on a primary computer (faculty 17%; graduate/professional students 8%, undergraduates 8% and staff 3%).

Internet Service Provider for Home Computers Between 1999 and 2006, ISP use from home steadily increased and has remained unchanged from last year's level of 92% for a connection to campus from a local residence, unchanged from 2006. From 1999 to 2002, the percentage of respondents reporting use of an ISP to connect to the university network was 78%, 80%, 82%, 88%, respectively and connectivity had remained around 88% between 2002 and 2005.

Use of Roadrunner for connection increased from 19% in 2001 to 46% in 2008. HomeNet (45% in 1999, down to 2% this year) and dial-up and DSL services (at 17% at compared to 23% last year and 42% in 2003) both declined in use, eclipsed by high-speed, broadband service (77% in 2008, up from 68% in 2007, 62% the previous year and from 45% in 2003) as the primary connection to the university network. Additionally, there was a significant difference among the four groups not having an ISP, with 8% overall reporting no home connection to OSU, down from 12% in 2005. While only 4% of the undergraduates and 5% of graduate/professional students (basically unchanged for both student groups from 2007) lack a home connection to the university network, only 4% of the faculty (unchanged from last year and 9% in 2005) and staff continue to lag somewhat behind the other groups (15% in 2008, remaining basically unchanged from last year).

All populations report a slight increase in connectivity from the previous year; however, staff continued to trail all groups in access to an ISP (15% still lack a home ISP to connect to campus), but significantly improved from 37% reporting no home connectivity in 2001. Only 4% of the faculty lacked connectivity to the university network, down slightly from the 6% reported in 2007. Only 4% of the undergraduates lacked an ISP and do not connect to the university network from their local residence and graduate/professional students follow closely with 5% not having an ISP in 2008.

The reported hourly usage varied among those who do connect to a home Internet Service Provider, but declined for all four groups in 2008 for usage over 20 hours per week. Graduate/professional students lead in hours connecting from home (38% down slightly from 40% reported in 2007), reporting more than 20 hours or more per week, followed by undergraduates (36%, down from 42% in 2007).. On average, 30% of the faculty reported connectivity over 20 hours per week to a home ISP (down from 34% in 2007) and staff reported the least hours (11% down from the reported 18% in 2007).

Computer Lab Use by Students Computer lab use was reported at ten hours or fewer hours per week for 90% of the graduate professional students and 83% of the undergraduates. An additional 6% of the graduate/professional students and 8% of the undergraduates report use of labs between 10 and 20 hours per week. A decline is also observed for labs use between 21 and 60 hours per week as reported by 5% undergraduates (down slightly from 6% in 2007) and 3% of the graduate/professional students (down from 9% in 2007). Less than 1% percent undergraduates and graduate/professional students report the use of computer labs above 60 hours per week.

Viruses, Virus protection, and Firewalls In 2008, 14% of the faculty experienced viruses (basically unchanged from the 15% reported in 2007 and significantly lower than the 58% noted in 2002), compared with 31% of the undergraduates (down from 34% in 2007 and substantially down from 51% reported in 2006), 22% of graduates (compared to 29% in 2007), and 17% of staff (down from 22% reported in last year). These findings represent a considerable improvement over the previous years, yet the current level of viruses still remains problematic and may be attributed to individuals either not installing or failing to update their anti-virus software. Among all populations surveyed, there were fewer viruses experienced on personal computers (undergraduates 28% and graduate/professional students 21%, down from 31% and 24% respectively reported in 2007 by these two student groups), although these same populations experienced almost no viruses on computers in university-owned facilities (undergraduates 1% and graduate/professional students less than 1%). This finding likely reflects the virus protection programs and controls placed on computers located in campus computer labs. Eight percent of the faculty (basically unchanged from 2007) and 11% of the staff (also unchanged from last year) experienced viruses on their personal computers in 2008. Similar to the student populations, both faculty (3%) and staff (4%) experienced few viruses on OSU computers. Almost all of the poll respondents have an anti-virus program installed on most primary computers (faculty and staff 84% and 82% of both student populations. Collectively, across the sampled university community, 78% use personal firewalls, up from 66% reported in 2007.

Awareness and Use of OIT System Awareness Webpage In 2006, a question was added assessing the campus community's awareness of the Office of Information Technology (OIT) System Status web page monitoring e-mail, Carmen, authentication, People Soft, college, or department services. There was only a modest increased awareness of this service across two of the four populations with 63% of the undergraduates (up from 60% in 2007) and 56% of the staff (up from 53%) aware of this resource compared to 55% of the faculty (down slightly from 57% reported in 2007) and 46% of the graduate/professional students (down significantly from 58% reported in 2007).

Awareness and Use of OIT Anti-Spam Service In the fall of 2005, OSU implemented an anti-spam filtering technology to reduce and block increasing amounts of commercial junk e-mail before it reaches the central server. Awareness of the anti-spam service on the central e-mail system to filter spam from the osu.edu mailbox was assessed as well as perception of its benefits in reducing unwanted e-mail. Seventy-eight percent of the faculty (81% in 2007) and 77% of the staff (basically unchanged from 78% in 2007) are aware of the anti-spam service. Responding to its perceived effectiveness in reducing unwanted e-mail, 55% of faculty (51% in 2007) and 62% of staff (59% in 2007) agree it is helpful.

Use of Handheld and Wireless Devices This year, the overall use of Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) or palmtop computers increased slightly on campus to 25% from 23% last year. In the 2008 poll, 31% of the faculty indicate the use of handhelds (down slightly from 33% in last year and 38% reported in 2006). Among graduate/professional students, 31% used handheld devices (up significantly from 17% last year and 20% reported in 2006) and for undergraduates, 14% (15% reported in 2007). Among the staff, the use of this handheld technology remained basically unchanged at 25% (23% reported the previous year).

In 2007, a question was added assessing the use of Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) or Smartphones including Palm OS device (Palm, Visor, Treo, Sony Clio, etc.), Windows CE, Powered by Windows, or PocketPC device (HP IPaq, Dell, etc.), a Blackberry or iPhone among members of the university community. Thirty-nine percent of the campus report using a wireless PDA or Smartphone which reflects 35% of the faculty, 34% of the graduate/professional students, 27% of the staff and 17% of the undergraduate student body.

Use of Instructional Technologies

To continue benchmarking future trends on the use instructional technologies and Informational Technologies (IT), the CIO's Office added new or revised questions to the 2008 technology poll. The questions covered instructional applications such as webinars, webcasting, podcasting, and using web-accessibility strategies, resources, tools, and blogs.

Faculty

About two-thirds of the faculty strongly agreed or agreed that the current instructional technology environment supports their teaching or instruction (66% v. 63% in 2007) compared to a 76% favorable response of graduate students either strongly agreed or agreed, up from 68% last year. Faculty generally strongly agreed or agreed (77%, compared to 74% in 2007) that OSU computing and electronic resources can be accessed from their lab or office compared with 61% that strongly agreed or agreed the same resources also can be accessed from home (58% reported in 2007). Additionally, 64% of the faculty either strongly agreed or agreed that IT helped increase their impact or productivity (compared to 66% in 2007). More than two-thirds of the faculty (71%) either strongly agreed or agreed that being able to use Information Technology contributes to their professional development (basically unchanged from 70% in 2007).

More than half of the faculty (53% compared to 49% in 2007) report using instructional technologies such as the Internet, visual simulations, MS PowerPoint presentations, discussion forums, Carmen, or another course management system, course web site or distance learning technologies in nearly every class. An additional 15% confirm the use of instructional technologies in several class sessions, compared to 17% in 2007. The number who report never using these tools remained about the same as last year (6% compared to 7% the previous year). E-mail remains the most widely used instructional technology (90%), followed by online syllabus and other handouts (83%), web-based materials (75%), and then online discussion forums (27%). The first three of these technologies remain the most commonly used instructional support strategies as noted during the past five years. Further, more than two-thirds of the faculty strongly agreed or agreed that IT was important to their students' success (70% compared to 68% last year, up from the 63% reported in 2006 and 60% in 2005). Somewhat expected, most faculty either strongly agreed (29% compared to 31% in 2007) or agreed (50% compared to 47%) that majors in their discipline should be required to demonstrate a certain level of knowledge regarding computer applications in their discipline.

Eleven percent of the faculty using the CIO's Technology Enhanced Learning and Research (TELR) instructional support services (basically unchanged from last year's 12% response) reported being very satisfied. Further, the faculty's overall level of satisfaction (very satisfied or satisfied) with TELR's instructional support services was slightly lower in 2008 (45% compared to 49% reported in 2007). Six percent were somewhat dissatisfied with the instructional support services (compared to 7% in the previous year) and only 3% responded notsatisfied. Thirty-nine percent of the faculty reported not using the services, about the same response as the previous year.

Rated by faculty very important considerations or as important in their decision to implement instructional technology in their classes was ease of use (87%, up from 82% in 2007), access to software equipment and network (82% in 2008 v. 77% last year), help and support to use instructional technologies (57% in 2007 v. 56% in 2007), maintaining ownership of the intellectual property developed within the context of instruction (38% in 2008 v. 40% last year), followed by rewards for using instructional technologies (24%, down from 28% last year).

Three-fourths of the faculty (75% compared to 58% in 2007) reported using Carmen, the university-supported course management system. Among the recurring reasons faculty provided for not using Carmen or another course management system, 23% opted for using their own course web site, 14% believe it doesn't suit their course needs,11% had no time for development and 11% did not know how to get started. With regard to Carmen functions that faculty would be interested in using, 27% showed a preference for eReserves, Wikis 16%, 14% indicated rubric-based assessment and/or webcasting or web conferencing, 13% cited ePortfolios, and 12% cited blogs.

In terms of the technical support needed to learn and use technology, 7% of the faculty report having everything, 46% report having much of what is needed to learn and use technology and 26% indicate a few things needed to learn and use technology are still lacking. Only 10% indicated not having the technical support needed to learn and use technology.

For several years the poll has tracked faculty's responses in ways that would be of interest in learning about instructional technology. Generally the most preferred methods have remained about the same during the past three years; in 2008 faculty cite the following means most often: self-instruction such as with manuals (51%), followed by self-paced tutorials (48%), hands-on workshops with instructors (46%), online workshops (40%) and then cohort workshops (40%). Self-instruction and hands-on workshops with instructors remains the most frequently selected format for learning about technology for the past three years.

For the past eight years, faculty have been asked, when given adequate support, would they be interested in offering a fully online, distance education course? Faculty responses continue to reflect a steady decline of their desire to offer online/distance education courses. Of the 456 faculty polled in 2008, only 13%% expressed interest (down from 26% reported in 2007 year), 41% responded they would not (down from the 47% response in 2007); however 41% (a response added for the first time in 2008), indicated possibly.

Students

Both undergraduates and graduate/professional students (97%) overwhelmingly feel that Information Technology is either very important in their education (undergraduates 77% v. 79% last year and graduate/professional students 77% v. 81% in 2007) or somewhat important (undergraduates unchanged from 2007 and graduate/professional students compared to 20% v. 16% last year). Seventy-five percent of the undergraduates and 85% of the graduate/professional students strongly agreed or agreed that use of Information Technology makes them marketable to future employers. Both student populations strongly agreed or agreed that the use of IT help make them more likely to succeed in their future academic work, (77% undergraduates v. 85% in 2007 and 84% of the graduate/professional students v. 80% in 2007).

With regard to classroom use of instruction technology, 81% of the undergraduates (unchanged from 2007) and 81% of the graduate/professional students (compared to 64% in 2007) report taking courses that incorporated instructional technology in nearly all or several of their classes during the past autumn quarter. Forty-three percent of the undergraduates (down slightly from 45% reported in last year's poll) and 60% of the graduate/professional students (up significantly from 48% in 2007) report having instructors who incorporate instructional technology in nearly every class. An additional 38% of the undergraduates had several classes that utilized instructional technology (36% reported in 2007) as compared to 21% of the graduate/professional students (16% reported last year). Only 2% on the undergraduates and 4% of the graduate/professional students report enrollment in courses that never incorporated instructional technology, approximately half as many reported in the 2007 poll. Given that graduate and professional students likely enroll in focused areas of study rather than in university-wide study, the variations in use of instructional technologies are not unexpected.

One-third of undergraduates indicate interest in taking self-paced fully delivered online classes (35%, basically unchanged from 33% compared to 26% graduate/professional students (down slightly from 28% reported last year). Preference for instructor-led only online courses also tracked about the same for undergraduates (32%, compared to 30% last year) and 21% for the graduate/professional students (down slightly from 23% reported last year). Interest in hybrid courses that occasionally meet "face-to-face" and the rest of the time online has basically remained constant during the past three years for both groups with undergraduates responding 44% (compared to 41% last year) and 34% of the graduate/professional students (almost unchanged from 33% reported in 2007). The interest in taking courses that meet primarily "face-to-face" has declined significantly and should be monitored closely in the future. Undergraduate preferences for "face-to-face" teaching declined from 68% in 2007 to 44% this year while graduate/professional students interest in this mode of instruction declined from 74% in 2007 to 34% this year.